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County Is Still Trying To Get A Bead On Buddy Johnson's Activities

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: March 8, 2009

Some stories seemingly never end. Over at the supervisor of elections office, they still are digging around, trying to figure out just what happened during the Buddy years.

Last week the county received a check from media giant Clear Channel for $18,000. The money was for nearly 80 radio advertisements purchased by the elections office that the stations didn't have time to squeeze in.

It's difficult to believe there was a commercial break during the last campaign season that didn't have at least one promotion for former Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson - all in the name of getting out the vote.

Springing Backward

Last year, this column asked some questions about a Hillsborough County School District plan to adopt new language arts and math programs called SpringBoard.

The concerns I was hearing came mostly from English teachers. They were dismayed not so much at the prospect of trying different approaches as they were with the idea that many of the basics were being eliminated.

Now, according to a story by Tribune reporter Marilyn Brown, a lot of those fears have been realized.

She quotes national board-certified Brandon High English teacher Holly Bentley, who teaches sophomore and junior honors classes. "The meat's not there," Bentley says. "There is no grammar. There is no vocabulary."

Brown quotes Sickle High School language arts teacher Lee Rich, who says, "All classical literature is gone. They're going to go to college with no classical literature and limited poetry instruction."

There's no doubt that school curriculums need constant monitoring and updating to reflect our times. But to go whole hog like the district did this year - buying into a program, some say, because there were federal grants available - still looks like a dubious decision at best.

Springing Forward

If you did, please hold it down. I want another hour of sleep this morning.
Home Invasions
The headline across the front of Friday's Mother Trib screamed, "Is Gasparilla Out Of Control?" At a post-Gasparilla session last week, the president of one neighborhood homeowners association said she was "scared to death. ... It might take treating this as a riot. We've lost control of it."

There were lots of other complaints, ranging from spectators using lawns as outdoor plumbing to drunkenness. There were even complaints about the beads.

I like Gasparilla, although to be honest I've never understood the beads thing, either. When I was a kid you wanted the blank cartridges from the pirates' guns. On the other hand, the way the economy is going around here, we might end up going into Publix and trying to exchange Gasparilla beads for groceries.

There was a suggestion that the parade be moved from Bayshore Boulevard to another part of town. I kind of like that. Every year it could be in another neighborhood. What would make it fun is not telling the neighbors where it was going to be until Gasparilla day and they woke up to blocked off streets and rows of Port-O-Lets in front of their yards.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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